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Virginia Ruzici results thread

15K views 93 replies 23 participants last post by  tommystar 
#1 · (Edited)
Virginia Ruzici is the 1978 French Open champion and is from Romania. The wtatour database includes her singles results from 1974, though she played on tour as early as 1973.


The ITF database has some results for Ruzici's 1973 season. I'm not sure if this is complete. So if anyone has additional info., please post it.

1973:

RUZICI, Virginia (ROM)

World Group Germany F.R., Fed Cup
C 30 Apr 1973 to 06 May 1973 Entry : Clay (O)
W Suzana GESTEIRA (BRA) 6-1 6-2
W Brenda KIRK (RSA) 4-6 6-3 6-3
W Christina SANDBERG (SWE) 6-3 8-6


French Open
SL 21 May 1973 to 03 Jun 1973 Entry : DA Clay (O)
64 L Nathalie FUCHS (FRA) 3-6 6-3 8-10



Wimbledon
SL 25 Jun 1973 to 08 Jul 1973 Entry : DA Grass (O)
128 B BYE
64 L Kerry HARRIS (AUS) 1-6 3-6
 
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#76 ·
I was shocked at post 1983 Evert. She looked like a different person to me. Like she went to a white trash convention and had a complete makeover thatnever washed off. Ha!
Even the Wimbledon crowds rooted for Evonne when she played Wade? And Evonne....B U T C H !? That’s hilarious. She was the daintiest player ever. I just find it hard to believe that Roger Cawley was running around the grounds with a syringe. Had he injected Evonne on Court it would have been reported by someone in the press, being incredibly unusual and at the biggest event of the year. Does Evonne talk about it in her book?
 
#77 ·
All I remember is Roger comforting Evonne. You can imagine why this was such a definitive image of Wimbledon in the 1970s, alongside "Our Ginnie" winning in the Silver Jubilee Year...

Crowd favourite Evonne suffers a physical calamity, cries out in pain, her concerned British husband runs onto the court...

I wonder if there is footage anywhere? I just cannot believe Roger gave Evonne an injection and all I remember is him comforting her...

Those of us who had spent the past decade with "Chrissie Evert" were obviously shocked with her new look, muscles, white-trash perms in 1984 and beyond (her hair seemed to take on a life of its own in 1986, at Roland Garros it looked like something that had come out of a sofa, been dipped in liquid hairspray and then microwaved). And then, after those 13 beatings in a row by Martina, it was a second revelation to see the Evert of 1987-89, who stepped onto the court as an equal against the mighty Navratilova. You never knew which woman was going to win... even on fast indoor courts (Evert chalked up straight-set wins indoors over Martina in exhibitions in France in 1987 and USA in 1988).

I also liked the totally outrageous shots Evert would come up with as well, because she no longer had the patience to engage in baseline rallies. Drop shots from outside the court, "angles which do not exist"....
 
#78 ·
That is hilarious about Chris’s hair. It was always so pretty and healthy looking pre-1983 perms, bleaches and those damn microwaves! I really enjoyed when she started to beat Martina again in 1985, but always wished she would ditch the perms + chlorox! Don’t even get me started on Martina’s hideous makeover in 1984. Mind boggling madness.
 
#79 ·
Martina always looked so hot, especially in 1981 and 1982 (the late 1970s and early 1980s were great for her in general looks-wise).

The year of 1987 was an absolute disaster for her with that dreadful mullet.

And I hated, hated, hated when Martina started wearing men's shorts and sporting a pudding-bowl haircut in the 1990s. She had so much natural beauty and I always thought she looked far hotter than any of the other women, Chrissie included, in the 1980s. It was like she was killing herself, like she had to kill the old Martina who had "lost" or was "past it", to create a new Martina that could win Wimbledon again...
 
#81 ·
Oh god THAT mullet! Yikes. I wish Martina could have continued her US Open 1981 look. She looked so much better with the reddish highlights and straight hair. I was flabbergasted every time I saw her post 1983. Just hideous. I preferred Hana with longer hair as well, but when she cut it she still looked like a normal human being. Martina looked like she was tarred and feathered in a vat of bleach with plucked chicken skin on her head! Haha.
 
#82 ·
Loving these posts about the hair! Chris' hair in 1986 was absolutely heinous and reached its nadir during the US Open. I thought she looked her best and 'Chrissie-est' in '81-'82, loved the ponytail and the Ellesse tank tops. I also agree that Martina looked her best in '81, the light brown plait really suited her. I thought she always looked better with darker hair, but I think Judy Nelson's influence led to some really Out of Control looks into the mid and late '80s and then post-Judy, I think Martina just thought, 'To hell with all that glitz and glamour (and fringe!), just stick a bowl on my head, cut it and be done with it.'

I always thought late'70-early '80s Evonne was very sexy, she had a terrific body...actually, if memory serves, Virgie had a similar shape and was pretty sexy herself.
 
#83 ·
What did Chris pull at the 86 open? I just remember thinking how boring it was with Hana losing to a 48 year old Turnbull, until the fabulous Steffi/Martina thriller...then snooze again during the final. Was it super crispy fried? It started looking a bit better in 87, but her hair never looked soft again. I thought her best period was anything in the 70s. Her hair looked soft, silky and healthy. I loved all her beautiful dresses and she didn’t seem as thin. She was obviously in wonderful shape but it seems like she lost some of her curves during the ‘catch up with Martina’ phase. I always liked ellese on both her and Hana, but I missed the sexy dresses. I wish someone would revive them, but I know with contracts it’s not possible.

As for Judy Nelson’s influence....barf me out the door. Anyone with eye balls could tell Martina looked better with natural color and some subtle highlights. Judy was trashy/brassy.

Pam, I’ve ALWAYS wondered how your hair went from welcome back kotter to silkience!?

Oh the good old days.
 
#84 ·
I think Evert was caught in the middle of two hairstyles at the US Open 1986. It seemed like her head had been occupied by two entirely different hairstyles all at the same time.

I think Martina's copper look in 1981 was the planned "half-way ground" as she went from black to blonde. She looked great earlier in the year with her raven hair and red bandana! And fantastic at Flushing Meadow in that matching shirt with the orange design.

I think Martina went blonde to catch up with Chris, just as Chris "butched herself up" to catch up with Martina. It was a psychological thing. You also had to look like the rival you wanted to beat!

Among the Chrissie looks, there should be a special mention of the look at the last hurrah -- the US Open in 1989 and that match with Seles. She looked so bizarre, because that was the look that twelve-year-old girls were sporting at the time in Scotland. But she also managed to look as if she had travelled back in time to the mid-1970s. And her play followed her.

I don't think Evert cared that she lost to Zina in the next round: because she had revisited Chrissie of the 1970s and had steamrollered Seles. The effort must have been the same to how the Time Traveller felt when he staggered off his machine after going off on his journey in the book by H.G. Wells. The tank was empty and she was just plain exhausted from "time travelling".
 
#86 ·
Looking at some contemporary reports of Wimbledon in 1978, it appears that Evonne Cawley had been having a problem with a sore left ankle, more specifically the Achilles tendon, in the run-up to the tournament. However, she beat some good players, including Janet Newberry and Regina Marsikova, on her way to the quarter-finals of the singles event. Evonne also took part in the women’s doubles event at Wimbledon that year, with Betty Stove, and they were seeded no. 2 (Evonne withdrew from that event in the round of 16, doubtless to save herself for the singles).

On Monday, July 3, Virginia Ruzici reached the quarter-finals of the singles event by defeating Betty Stove, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3. After that match Virginia said, “I had never won a match at Wimbledon, and here I am in the quarters. I have been looking forward to it so much, since I saw the draw. But at first I didn’t dare to look that far ahead. I have nothing to lose and I will fight hard.”
--

The quarter-final match between Evonne Cawley, the no. 3 seed, and Virginia Ruzici, who was seeded 13, took place on Court no. 3 on Tuesday, July 4. Rex Bellamy, then tennis correspondent of the London ‘Times’, had this to say about it in the following day’s newspaper:

“Mrs Cawley has been bothered by her left heel. Yesterday she had a pain-killing injection. But when 2-5 down to Virginia Ruzici, she was in such pain that she began to cry, went to the umpire’s chair as if to retire, but was consoled and encouraged by her husband – and wiped the tears away and won.

“This incident disturbed Miss Ruzici’s concentration and arrested her momentum. She lost five consecutive games. In the second set she led 3-0, but lost six consecutive games. What a lovely, instinctive talent for tennis Mrs Cawley has. She reads no score, but hits all the right notes. She is a jazz musician masquerading as a tennis player.”

So it appears that Evonne Cawley had been receiving injections for her left ankle, not actually during matches, but before them. Roger Cawley appears just to have offered words of advice and encouragement when he spoke to Evonne during the match with Virginia Ruzici.
--

There was no rest for Evonne, who had to take on Martina Navratilova on Centre Court the next day, Wednesday, July 5, 1978. Unfortunately for Evonne, her ankle acted up at a crucial point in the match, as reported by Rex Bellamy:

“Mrs Cawley, too, had a run of four consecutive games. During this phase of her first set with Martina Navratilova, the Australian’s game was a series of flowing improvisations. Off-stage, somebody should have been playing New Orleans jazz. Mrs Cawley was making music; underscored, but with a firm melodic line of haunting beauty. There was nothing Miss Navratilova could do. She was made to look relatively awkward and stereotyped. Mrs Cawley looked slim and fit, and was playing like a dream. We knew about the bother around her Achilles tendon, about the pain-killing injections. But in this form, she would not have to stay on court long.

“Miss Navratilova, though, is now mature enough to tolerate adversity without being overwhelmed by it. She no longer behaves as if hostile, invisible forces are moving the lines and changing the height of the net. She is a big, strong woman who plays shots to match – and she never lost faith in them. She precariously thumped her way to a 4-0 lead in the second set. Mrs Cawley’s lateral running was inhibited. She was reluctant to turn quickly on that left foot. Her marvellous instinct for tennis remained intact. But it was not much use to her unless she could reach the ball. She bounced back from 1-5 to 4-5 in the second set. But she lost it.

“In the third set there was a break each way. Miss Navratilova had a third break point, Mrs Cawley two more. The crowd were expectantly quiet, awaiting a dramatic climax – or perhaps afflicted by frostbite. As Mrs Cawley hit a forehand lob to hold her service for 4-3, she yelped with pain. She grasped her left leg, head bowed, then limped to the umpire’s chair, wiping away the tears. She scored only four more points. To her credit, she stayed on her feet until the end, instead of quitting. That, at least, was a courtesy to her opponent. Whether she should have gone on court in the first place is a moot point. But you know what Australians are. As long as they can stand up, they can fight.”
-----
 
#88 ·
Yeah that surprised me too. Does anyone know the schedule of play that day? Evonne had to be second only to Virginia Wade in terms of popularity for the women. Or Sue Barker? I am sure Bjorn ruled all of Centre Court, but I recall World Tennis saying Evonne played every single match in 1980 on Centre? Maybe they realized how fragile she was by that time and knew she wouldn’t be around for long, unlike Wade?
 
#89 ·
If I remember correctly, 1980 was an incredibly rainy Wimbledon. And Chris did not play on Centre Court until she met Navratilova in the semis!

It was all about Martina and Tracy that year. Chris and Evonne were relegated to seeds 3 and 4, it was like a changing of the guard and the Wimbledon organisers and commentators were trying to politely tell Chris and Evonne that it was time to book places in retirement homes.

I recall that Martina and Tracy always seemed to be on Centre Court and a final was eagerly anticipated between them. However, young though I was at the time, it was clear that both Chris and Evonne were playing much better tennis than the top two seeds. That is what made the two semis so magical.

Martina was lucky to scrape through against BJK in the quarters. They made BJK play when it was raining, though they had promised that they would not. She could not concentrate for cleaning her glasses.

Evonne's victory was wildly popular and in the quarters where I was watching more popular than "Our Ginny" in 1977.
 
#93 · (Edited)
No one was encouraging Evert or Goolagong Cawley to retire. The court assignments were not biased against them. Austin and Navratilova were not constantly playing on Centre Court. Look up the assignments in The Guardian and ditch your "alternative facts."

You are only half right about the Navratilova-King quarterfinal. It was a 2-day match. King had plenty of opportunities during day 2 to win the match after playing a near-perfect second set. But she squandered all of them.
 
#92 ·
According to World Tennis magazine, all ofEvonne’s matches were played on Center Court. I think it was just her and Borg that were given that honor in 1980? And they both ended up victorious, but WT stated that by the time she got to the semi the court was feeling like her backyard, or something along those lines.
 
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